Paying off environmentalists has never worked before.
The founding energy companies of the Center for Sustainable Shale Development are Shell, Chevron, CONSOL Energy and EQT Corp. Environmental backers include the Clean Air Task Force, the Environmental Defense Fund, Group Against Smog and Pollution, Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future and the Pennsylvania Environmental Council. The Heinz Endowments and the William Penn Foundation are the participating philanthropies.
This sort of arrangement with enviros is becoming increasingly popular. It used to be, green extortion meant a campaign against a company or product, resulting in a one-time, tax-deductible payment to the NGO, and they would go away. The problem with these extortion schemes is that the NGOs would always come back for more.
The modern ‘green certification’ scheme is built much more closely along the lines of the classical ‘protection money’ racket. As long as the greens retain a cash flow, the protesters don’t show up, and the lobbyists don’t wreak havoc in the legislature. Quite often, part of the deal is placing a green certification logo on the certified product, with the greens charging a royalty for use of the logo. The arrangement has worked well for years and decades in the timber, lumber, palm oil, and soybean industries, and the activists have dutifully stayed their hand.
As they say, ‘An honest NGO is one that stays bought’.
There’s everything to be said for good stewardship in developing resources of any kind. But this does smack of licking that hand that will beat you. I’d like to see the developers go on offense, showing how the obstructionists are depriving people of wealth from their properties and depriving our economy of energy that would be good for all.